


Arsenic on the Rocks

by SilverCherie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Death, F/M, dark themes, dulceween2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-23 22:29:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 1,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12517996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverCherie/pseuds/SilverCherie
Summary: "Do you remember the fun we had when you poisoned me?"An entry for dulce-de-leche-go’s dulceween 2017





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I was inspired to write this after watching the movie “The House on Haunting Hill”. Each chapter will be no more than a 100 words. It is more a personal challenge to see if I can tell a story with a word limit. 
> 
> This is also an entry for dulce-de-leche-go’s dulceween event. 
> 
> So if you like this story, please support the other writers and creators that have participated as well! 
> 
> A very special thanks to chiseplushie and midnightrain910 for being amazing beta readers! I couldn’t have gotten this far without your encouragement and feedback! <3 <3
> 
> NOTE: Each chapter will be inspired by a quote from the movie. And each chapter will start with a quote from the story. Hopefully I do these characters and the story I’m attempting to write justice.

_ “There'll be food and drink and ghosts, and perhaps even a few murders. You're all invited.” _

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Hermione was imprisoned.  _ Obviously _ .

 

By what? 

 

There were no bars on the doors and windows.  _ So then, how? _

 

_ Magic, of course.  _

 

More questions plagued her mind, but only one escaped her to the ear’s of her jailer.

 

“How long do you plan to keep me here?”

 

“ _ Keep you?  _ No one can keep you here--least of all me. You are free to leave if you choose.”

 

“It really isn’t much of a choice. You cursed me to die a painful death if I leave.”

 

“Well. All choices have consequences don’t they? Death will be  _ yours _ .”


	2. Chapter 2

 

_ “Darling, the only ghoul in the house is you.” _

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The Riddle House.

 

This home housed his weakest, vulnerable moments. Where he shook with uncertainty before his first kill, where  _ he  _ was at the mercy of Wormtail’s care. 

 

This home served as a reminder of how  _ perishable _ he is. 

 

His powers grew, but his flesh rotted _. Limiting his potential.  _

 

_ Potter was dead. With no equal adversary, he would find a way. _

 

_ A way to feast on his mortality, and free his powers to grow limitless. _

 

_ But the Granger girl was in his way. He’d have to rid of her.  _

 

What better place than here for her to wither to dust?

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	3. Chapter 3

_ “It's almost time to lock up the house and then your party will really begin. I wonder how it will end” _

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Time passed. A forever gloom draped around the house.

 

“You’re not really him, are you?”

 

The still silence that cloaked the two inhabitants broke. 

 

It was dinner time. 

 

She looked up from her food to see him watching her. Always.

 

_ She ate. He watched. _

 

_ She walked. He watched. _

 

Anything she did, he watched.  

 

He could see it in her eyes. Her mind dragged to a slow madness, her physique resembled a living corpse.

 

_ His plan working without fail.  _

 

Sinister amusement plagued his face.

 

“ I am not him. I am another him.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	4. Chapter 4

  


_“See that stain? Blood. A young girl was killed here... and whatever got her wasn't human.”_

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Her nightmares were her only escape.

 

But they always ended the same.

 

 _Harry dead. Ron dead. Everyone dead._ (She died with them that day.)

 

But the war _raged_ on. The line between Death Eaters and the Order soon blurred.

 

And she became an angel of death--the traces of bloodshed and carnage followed her.

 

Ironic, that in her fight with Voldemort, she was the one bleeding.

 

_His wand pointed at her. She braced for death._

 

She jolted awake, catching her breath.

 

“ You’re awake.”

 

And there he was. Sitting. Watching.

 

_Why didn’t he kill me?_

  
  
  



	5. Chapter 5

“If I were gonna haunt somebody, this would certainly be the house I’d do it in”

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

_ This curse is more than imprisonment in this house.  _

 

There was something else at play.

 

There was this.. rot. Not visible to the eye of course--the house was spotless.

 

But the smell of it followed her everywhere.  _ Him. _

 

_ A horcrux and death is one and the same. The soul survives, but the body decays. _

 

And this stench latched onto  _ her _ . No matter how much she cleaned and scrubbed, death clung as her own odor. 

 

But she ate. Slept. She did what the living do.

 

_ That was it. _

 

A curse to live (die) forever as he does. 

 

That was his plan.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	6. Chapter 6

  
  
  


_ “I am not such a fool as to hang my wife from the ceiling, by a rope!” _

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Wouldn’t a wand kill me quicker?”

 

They sat across from one another near the fireplace. 

 

_ Her questions are unpredictable. _

 

A cold smile appeared.

 

“And have you miss out on a learning experience in suffering? That wouldn’t be  _ fair _ .” 

 

Her expression mirrored his  _ too well _ .

 

“I’ve been a thorn at your side all these years. A little late for lessons, don’t you think, Tom?”

 

A convulsive madness overtook him. He was on her in an instant, grip tightening over her throat. 

 

Her eyes showed no fear. Just realization.

 

He wanted to kill her. 

 

_ But he couldn’t.  _

 

_ Now she knew too. _

  
  
  



	7. Chapter 7

“Fear can make people do amazing things.”

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Tom never dreamed before.

 

Since his violent attempt on her life, he dreamt of the same moment.

 

A duel. The Dark Lord. The real  _ him _ . 

 

Against  _ her. _

 

_ His bony hands held a wand, Granger at the other end boldly facing her demise.  _

 

_ But he knew killing her wouldn’t keep him alive.  _

 

_ He would soon follow after her dying breath. _

 

_ This was his end. _

 

_ The realization instilled a desperate terror within him. Something must be done. _

 

He awoke from his nightmare, but the fear stayed.

 

What did he do?

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	8. Chapter 8

  
  
  
  


“He would kill me if he could.”

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

His presence lingered but he kept at a distance.

 

As though he were  _ afraid.  _

 

It gave her space to think. 

 

She needed to leave. Her prolonged imprisonment meant suffering his own damned fate. 

 

And time was running out (sanity too).

 

Her surroundings did not give the smallest inkling of how to escape.

 

But that damn nightmare! Each night more vivid than before.

 

_ As she made her way up the hill, she had one goal. _

 

_ The Riddle House. _

 

_ Where Tom was reborn as Voldemort and where he would die. _

 

_ Either by her hand or his own. That she was sure of. _

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	9. Chapter 9

_ “Come with me, murderess, come with me!” _

_ \---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _

 

He had revealed too much in his hesitation to kill her.

 

And in a pathetic, desperate attempt to cling to some sense of control, he kept distant from her sharp eyes.

 

But he feared. She was too clever and soon she’d come to realize what he knew.

 

That was no dream.

 

_ He knew she’d be here soon. _

 

_ Ironic that he’d defeated the prophesied “Chosen One” but a no-name mudblood rose to become his main adversary. _

 

_ But no matter. She would soon go where so many others who dared challenge him went before. _

 

_ Of that, he was sure.  _

  
  
  



	10. Chapter 10

_ “ Who would want to haunt me?” “I would say any self-respecting male ghost.” _

 

_ \--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _

 

"You're not another him."

 

The sound of her voice made him freeze.

 

She turned to look at him. He tried his best to appear indifferent. 

 

"You're no dark lord. You're barely a horcrux."

 

His eyes widened. He took a step back.

 

She stepped forward.

 

"I came to finish you that night."

 

_ She stood fearlessly at the other end of his wand. He knew then. His fate was sealed with hers. _

 

"What did you do Tom?"

 

A pause. 

 

“What did  _ you  _ do Hermione?”

 

_ Dark Arts always worked for those who feared excessively.  _

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	11. Chapter 11

 

_ “Do you remember the fun we had when you poisoned me?” _

\-----------------------------------------------

 

_ She feared. She feared her loved ones died in vain. She feared that when she died, she’d be too damned to reunite with them.  _

 

_ Something must be done. And Tom’s death would be her salvation. _

 

_ As she made final preparations, she chuckled to herself.  _

 

_ The same dark arts that promised him longevity were what made him vulnerable. _

 

_ With a quick cut to her palm, blood spilt just as the incantation did from her lips that bound the  _

_ remaining piece of Tom Riddle's soul to her own.  _

 

_ If she couldn't kill him, her death would. That she was sure of. _

  
  
  
  
  



	12. Chapter 12

_ “Don't stay up thinking of ways to get rid of me, it makes wrinkles. “ _

_ \----------------------------------------------------------------------- _

 

_ His duel with her was unlike anything before--as if every inch of damage inflicted on her returned to him ten-fold.  _

 

_ And when he finally had the upper hand, his wand at the ready to give the final blow, he realized. _

 

_ She had planned to destroy him, along with herself. _

 

_ He had to do something. And quick. The split second after she died was all he had to save himself. _

 

"Answer me Tom. What did you do?"

 

He looked at her. She seemed to know the answer already.

 

He wasn't the horcrux. 

 

_ “Avada Kedavra!” _

  
  
  
  



	13. Chapter 13

_ “It's a pity you didn't know when you started your game of murder that I was playing, too.” _

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This house is keeping us alive, isn't it?"

 

_ It was a desperate attempt-- to split a fragmented soul at the crux of death.  _

 

_ Into a home that housed his weakest moments. But now served as his personal hell. _

 

She continued, “And because I bound our souls together…”

 

They were inseparable. So much for salvation. Her worst fear -- to never reunite with Harry and Ron.

 

His voice broke through her anguish. 

 

“Did you really think I’d allow myself to die?”

 

A pause. 

 

“No. But some things are worse than death.”

 

Like eternal purgatory. Not dead, but not alive. Forever rotting.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed this little work I've created!


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